[AVOID REPEATING PAST MISTAKES] Mechanical blocks and offsets.

Proposal: Unified offsets

A quick recap before we start:

Space engineers 1 has used arbitrary offsets its years of development as it gradually introduced mechanical blocks one after the other.

Each block having its unique quirk when it came to default offset and aligned to grid offsets.

Below is a list of current state Space Engineers today:

Large Pistons base offset is: 0.158463

Small Pistons base offset is: 0.031542

Large basic rotor: 0.420864 m

Large advanced rotor: 0.199789 m

Small basic rotor: 0.03604 m

Small advanced rotor: 0.047985 m

Small 3x3 rotor: Just about exactly 0

Large grid rotor aligns with the grid, when you stack 5 and set offset to 0.0792

Large grid Adv rotor is flush at 0.1998

Small Rotor offset is flush at 0.009cm

Small 1x1 Advanced Rotor offset is flush at 0.0093cm (-0.003 Post Automatons)

Small 3x3 Advanced Rotor offset is flush at 11cm (which is its default offset)

On top of this, pistons are bent which is another issue altogether.

almost all of theese mechanical blocks have values outside the scope which players are allowed to work with, Simplest example being the Piston

A piston has a default offset of 0.158463. Now how would a player be able to use this?

As you can imagine this has been very confusing frustrating to players and working around theese values is a pain. Only in recent years has information about this been more commonplace.

What im proposing:

UNIFY the offset system. (and make pistons straight)

When introducing blocks like rotors, pistons and other blocks with offsets

keep the offset aligned to the in increments along the unified grid system.

Offset 0 on any mechanical block Should be aligned to the top of its hitbox. or aligned to the nearest reasonable grid.

Default offset should be either +25cm or +50cm

Example:

So say you introduce a piston.

By default, the minimum offset is +0.25cm BUT it goes down to 0cm and is now flush to the top of its hitbox.

Fully extended, it should then go to say 10m 25cm

A rotor, Its default offset is +0.25cm but setting it to 0.0 will make it flush to the top of its hitbox.

It can still be lowered and raised however much youd like, its still able to go into negative values., but it should be incremented so it maxes out at either 25 or 50cm increments and aligns to grid at 0cm.

Theese increments could also be "steps of 25cm" so its simpler for console players to step up/down between increments of 25cm offsets. while you still have granular control for more precision.

The same should be for Wheels, to allow for better fitment of exterior armor plating for the tank builders, it doesnt need to be adjustable for wheels, but it needs to be in line with the unified grid system.

For smaller rotors and pistons, theese values might not be correct due to size, so instead of 25cm they could have a base offset of 12.5cm (half) but should still be able to go down to 0. to be aligned flush with the nearest 25 or 50cm grid in its hitbox.

Conclusion:

Having a more unified offset system will be a game changer. Theese values will make a ton of difference for players to understand how offsets will help fix issues plaguing Space Engineers for years!

PS: All theese issues would be lovely to see fixed in SE1 aswell at some point. We just really dont want a repeat of this in SE2